Tagged with Biba Caggiano …

The best pork chops are those that are marbled with fat, as the fat provides flavor and prevents the chops from drying out. For this recipe I used some pork chops from iberico pig, the same Spanish pork that is used to make the famous jamón. The best part of this recipe is the piquant … Continue reading →

It has been a while since I had last cooked a recipe from Biba Caggiano, my favorite cookbook author. Rabbit in piquant sauce is something I had prepared before more than a decade ago, and I remember the rabbit turned out a bit dry and tough. I thought it would be worth trying it again, … Continue reading →

Every time I browse the many cookbooks by Biba Caggiano I own, a recipe catches my eye that I haven’t tried before. In this case it was bucatini alle cipolle, a very simple pasta dish that makes the onions shine by cooking them slowly over low heat. A bit of pancetta is added for additional … Continue reading →

My favorite way of blogging is to cook something, eat it, blog about it right afterwards, and then read your comments. That’s what I did today. From the kitchen to the blog in a couple of hours. Risottos always take a bit of time, but this one was straightforward enough to make on a weekday after work. … Continue reading →

Have you ever heard of risotto alla bolognese? I had not. Or at least I couldn’t remember, because I found it in a cookbook by Biba Caggiano that I’d had for years. It’s not a traditional combination, but it it delicious and the texture of the risotto and the ragù work very well together. I … Continue reading →

Sea scallops are one of my favorite foods. This quick and easy preparation makes them shine: they are pan-fried and then finished with a sauce of white wine, lemon, capers, and anchovies. The sauce is pretty hefty, but the scallops can handle it. As usual with dishes like this, for best results it is important … Continue reading →

We love risotto and so it is fitting that the 600th post on this blog is a risotto recipe. I had just finished another batch of homemade pancetta and was looking for a recipe to use it with. In one of Biba Caggiano’s books I found a recipe for risotto with radicchio and pancetta. Radicchio is … Continue reading →

Yet another simple and delicious seafood pasta dish from Biba Caggiano that only takes as long as it takes to cook the pasta: pasta shells with calamari, tomatoes, anchovies, and chile pepper flakes. This is best with fresh squid, but frozen squid will work too. The most important is not to overcook the squid, as … Continue reading →

After eating at three-star restaurants and trying complicated recipes, it’s easy to forget that simple food can be great, too. Fortunately I only need to browse one of Biba Caggiano’s cookbooks to be reminded of that, and that is where I found this recipe. You may not think that making your own gnocchi from scratch … Continue reading →

I don’t have many cookery books (at least not compared to many of you), and I do not use the ones that I do have very often. There is one exception, and that is my collection of Biba Caggiano books. By now I’ve probably cooked the majority of recipes in there, but there are still … Continue reading →

Even though I’ve been cooking out of Biba Caggiano’s “Modern Italian Cooking” for 15 years now, I still haven’t tried all of her recipes. One of them was “Lamb Stew with Small Onions and Carrots”. I thought it would be perfect for the cold winter weather we’ve been having, and I was right. The stew … Continue reading →

Braciole (also spelled as Brasciole) are a typical dish from the province of Bari in Puglia. Braciole are bundles of beef, stuffed with a mixture of parsley, garlic, and cheese, and then cooked low and slow in a tomato sauce. As with many Italian recipes there are variations. According to the Italian wikipedia it is supposed … Continue reading →

I’ve adapted this pork dish from one of Biba Caggiano’s recipes from the region Emilia-Romagna. The pork goes really well with the sweet and sour onions. Separately they are both good, but together they are delicious. You can roast the pork in the oven, or cook it sous-vide. It won’t be a surprise that I … Continue reading →

I’ve mentioned before that my Italian cooking adventures all began with the great books by Biba Caggiano. One of my favorite recipes from one of her earliest books, Modern Italian Cooking, is the one for sweet and sour pork. She uses pork loin, but I’ve always used pork tenderloin instead since it is more tender. This … Continue reading →

I have tomato envy. I read all those posts of fellow food bloggers who are buying heirloom tomatoes at farmers markets, or even harvesting perfectly ripe tasty tomatoes from their own backyard. And given the local climate here, I have to make do with tomatoes that come from a greenhouse and are just not the … Continue reading →